Manufacturing IT is its own discipline. The combination of production networks, operational technology, supply chain connectivity, and intellectual property protection creates an environment that general-purpose IT providers are not built to support. For manufacturers across Central Illinois, choosing the wrong IT partner means risking production downtime, compliance failures, and exposure to a threat environment that has only gotten worse.

Manufacturing has been the most targeted industry for cyberattacks four years running, according to IBM’s X-Force Threat Intelligence Index. Ransomware attacks targeting manufacturers rose 56% in 2025 compared to the previous year, with the sector absorbing one in four of all documented ransomware incidents globally. Central Illinois manufacturers face the same threats as manufacturers everywhere, but with the added reality that most operations in this region have 50 to 500 employees, tighter IT budgets, and fewer dedicated security resources than Fortune 500 plants.

This blog explains what makes manufacturing IT different, where the risks are highest, and what to look for in a technology partner who can protect both your production floor and your front office.

At a glance: Manufacturing has been the #1 most targeted industry for cyberattacks for four consecutive years (IBM X-Force 2025). Ransomware attacks on manufacturers rose 56% in 2025, with 62% of victims paying the ransom (Check Point Manufacturing Threat Landscape 2026). 96% of operational technology (OT) incidents in 2025 were traced back to IT system compromises (TXOne Networks), which means protecting your office network protects your production floor. 22% of organizations with OT systems reported a cybersecurity incident in the past year, with 40% of those incidents causing production disruption (SANS Institute 2025). Facet Technologies has served manufacturers across Central Illinois for over 30 years, with specific experience in production network security, CMMC compliance, and IT/OT environments. One Central Illinois manufacturer reduced support tickets by 70% within six months of partnering with Facet, after we identified and resolved recurring infrastructure issues that had been disrupting operations.

Why Is Manufacturing IT Different From Standard Business IT?

In most businesses, when the network goes down, people can’t check email for a few hours. In a manufacturing facility, when the network goes down, the production line stops. Orders don’t ship. Raw materials sit idle. Depending on the process, a network outage can damage equipment, spoil product, or create safety hazards.

That’s the core difference. Manufacturing IT exists to keep production running, and every technology decision has to be evaluated through that lens.

Operational technology (OT) is the category of systems that directly controls or monitors physical processes: programmable logic controllers (PLCs), SCADA systems, human-machine interfaces (HMIs), and industrial control systems. These systems were originally designed to operate in isolation, but modern manufacturing increasingly connects OT to IT networks for data collection, reporting, and supply chain integration. That connectivity creates the security gap that attackers are targeting.

Your IT partner needs to understand this environment. They need to know which systems can be patched on a Tuesday afternoon and which ones require a maintenance window during a scheduled shutdown. They need to know that rebooting a server connected to a PLC could halt a production line. They need to understand the difference between a help desk ticket from accounting and an alert from a sensor on the manufacturing floor.

What Are the Biggest Cybersecurity Risks for Manufacturers Right Now?

Three overlapping risk categories are hitting manufacturers harder than any other industry.

Ransomware is the most expensive threat. According to cybersecurity insurer Resilience, ransomware accounted for 90% of all financial losses in the manufacturing sector between March 2021 and February 2026. Manufacturers are targeted specifically because attackers know that production downtime is so costly that companies are more likely to pay. The data confirms it: 62% of manufacturers who experienced ransomware in 2025 paid the ransom.

IT/OT convergence is expanding the attack surface. The connection between office IT systems and production OT systems is where most breaches start. TXOne Networks reported that 96% of OT incidents in 2025 were traced back to IT system compromises. That means an attacker who gets into your email server or a workstation in the front office can, in many environments, reach the systems that run your production floor.

Supply chain attacks are accelerating. Supply chain compromises nearly doubled in 2025, rising from 154 incidents to 297 in the manufacturing sector. Attackers target smaller vendors, managed service providers, or software platforms to gain indirect access to their manufacturing clients. Your security posture is only as strong as the weakest link in your supply chain.

For Central Illinois manufacturers, these risks are compounded by the reality that many facilities still run legacy systems, older PLCs, and aging network infrastructure that cannot be easily replaced without impacting production schedules.

What Should a Manufacturing IT Provider Be Able to Do?

Not every IT company understands manufacturing. Here’s what separates a provider who can support a manufacturing environment from one who is guessing.

Understand the IT/OT boundary. Your provider should be able to explain how your office network connects to your production network, where the segmentation points are (or should be), and what happens if a threat crosses from one side to the other. If your IT partner has never discussed network segmentation with you, that’s a gap.

Protect without disrupting production. Security patches, firmware updates, and system changes in a manufacturing environment have to be scheduled around production. A provider who pushes updates during operating hours without understanding the consequences is a liability, not a partner.

Support compliance requirements. If your company bids on Department of Defense contracts, CMMC compliance is now required. If you handle payment card data, PCI DSS applies. If you work with food production, FDA and FSMA requirements may affect how you manage and protect data. Your IT partner should know which frameworks apply to your business and help you maintain compliance, not discover requirements after an audit fails.

Provide layered security. Manufacturing environments need endpoint detection and response on every managed device, managed firewall protection with hardware replaced on a regular cycle, email security that catches phishing before it reaches your team, multi-factor authentication, dark web monitoring for compromised credentials, and 24/7 security monitoring that can detect and contain threats before they reach production systems.

Plan and budget proactively. Manufacturing IT is not just about keeping things running today. It’s about knowing when your firewall is due for replacement, when your servers are approaching end of life, when your backup infrastructure needs to be tested, and what the budget looks like for the next 12 months. Your provider should lead that conversation through quarterly business reviews, not wait for something to fail.

Maintain tested backups with real recovery times. The SANS Institute’s 2025 survey found that only 22% of OT incidents were remediated within 48 hours. For a manufacturer, that kind of delay can mean days of lost production. Your backup and disaster recovery strategy should include hybrid approaches that combine on-site and cloud backup for instant recovery when it matters most. Facet’s backup architecture is designed so that when a server or system fails, we can spin up a working copy immediately rather than waiting hours or days for a traditional restore.

How Does Facet Technologies Support Manufacturers?

Facet Technologies has served manufacturers across Central Illinois for over 30 years. Our team has specific experience with production environments, IT/OT networks, and the compliance requirements that affect manufacturers in this region, including CMMC, PCI DSS, and cyber insurance readiness.

We know that manufacturing doesn’t stop at 5 PM. Our in-house helpdesk in Peoria answers calls live during business hours, and an on-call technician is available 24/7/365. Our average response time is under 15 minutes, because when a system connected to your production line has a problem, every minute counts.

Our approach starts with understanding your production environment before recommending anything. We assess your network, your OT exposure, your compliance requirements, and the way your team works on the floor and in the front office. From there, we build a security and support strategy specific to your operation, not a generic IT plan borrowed from an accounting firm.

We’ve helped Central Illinois manufacturers stabilize aging infrastructure, pass compliance audits, defend against ransomware, and plan technology investments that align with business growth. One manufacturer saw a 70% reduction in support tickets within the first six months of working with us, driven by identifying and resolving recurring issues that had been costing them time and money for years. You can see another example of this work in our manufacturer IT stabilization case study.

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